Pressure was mounting this week for a full inquiry after the revelation that the lead investigator in a controversial UK study on alleged links between autism, bowel disease, and the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine had failed to disclose that he was also carrying out investigations for lawyers hoping to sue over vaccine damage.

Andrew Wakefield's study of 12 children, published in the Lancet (1998;351: 637), provoked a huge media controversy that was followed by a substantial fall-off in the percentage of children given the triple vaccine.

Last week the Lancet's editor, Richard Horton, said he would not have published the paper had he known that Dr Wakefield had a …